Contemporary social theory: an introduction

"Now in its third edition, Anthony Elliott's comprehensive, stylish and accessible introduction continues to be the indispensable guide to social theory. Fully revised and updated, the book examines the major theoretical traditions from the Frankfurt School to posthumanism, and from feminism and post-structuralism to globalization theory and beyond. Classical debates in social theory are given careful appraisal, as are the major contemporary theorists - including Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Slavoj Zizek, Manuel Castells, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman, Shoshana Zuboff and Bernard Stiegler. This edition includes a new chapter on the digital revolution, with consideration of how digital technologies in general and artificial intelligence in particular are resahaping societies. Like its predecessors, the third edition of Contemporary Social Theory combines stylish exposition with reflective social critique and original insights. This volume will prove a superb textbook with which to navigate the twists and turns of contemporary social theory as taught in the disciplines of sociology, politics, cultural and media studies and many more"--

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface to the third edition -- Preface to the second edition -- 1 The textures of society -- What is society? -- Society and social theory -- Coping with climate change: Anthony Giddens -- Key themes in contemporary social theory -- Living in the world after Covid-19: addressing the future -- Further questions -- Further reading -- Internet links -- 2 The contemporary relevance of the classics -- The contradictions of modernity: Marx -- Modernity as iron cage: Weber -- Modernity as moral bonds: Durkheim -- Trauma, tragedy and Thanatos: Freud -- Summary points -- Further questions -- Further reading -- Internet links -- 3 The Frankfurt School -- Horkheimer and Adorno: Dialectic of Enlightenment -- Freudian revolution: the uses of psychoanalysis -- Fromm: fear of freedom -- Adorno: The Authoritarian Personality, anti-Semitism and the psychodynmics of modernity -- Written in the stars: Adorno on astrology -- Marcuse: Eros, or one-dimensional futures? -- Utopia and social transformation: Marcuse on libidinal rationality -- Criticisms of Marcuse -- Summary points -- Further questions -- Further reading -- Internet links -- 4 Structuralism -- Saussure and structural linguistics -- Criticisms of Saussure -- The Raw and The Cooked: Lévi-Strauss and structural anthropology -- Roland Barthes: structuralist semiology and popular culture -- Foucault: knowledge, social order and power -- Society and disciplined bodies -- The limits of structuralism: Foucault's History of Sexuality -- Governmentality -- Criticisms of Foucault -- Summary points -- Further questions -- Further reading -- Internet links -- 5 Post-structuralism -- Lacan: the mirror stage and imaginary -- Lacan's reformulation of structuralism: language, symbolic order and the unconscious.

In this comprehensive, stylish and accessible introduction to contemporary social theory, Anthony Elliott examines the major social theoretical traditions. The first edition set new standards for introductory textbooks, such was the far-reaching sweep of social theorists discussed - including Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Manuel Castells, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman, Giorgio Agamben and Manuel De Landa.From the Frankfurt School to globalization, fr